After two false starts, the Hawthorne-based rocketbuilder successfully launched its mission to deploy the first batch of what could ultimately be thousands of satellites providing space-based internet service around the globe. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral at 7:35 p.m. Thursday night (10:35 Eastern time) with 60 Starlink satellites packed into the fairing.

The launch was scrubbed twice last week, once due to upper-level winds over the Cape and once to give the company a chance to “update satellite software and triple-check everything again.”

The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket to be used in the launch was previously used in missions in January of this year and in September 2018. SpaceX successfully recovered the first stage after the launch, nailing the landing on a barge named “Of Course I Still Love You” floating in the Atlantic Ocean.

Falcon 9's first stage has landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship – the third launch and landing of a booster that’s flown for a third time! pic.twitter.com/CzEDao3tFa

Approximately one hour after the liftoff, the Starlink satellites were deloyed, a packed-tight block of devices that floated away from the spacecraft and then slowly started to pull apart like a deck of cards.

The 60 satellites on board the spaceship created, as SpaceX founder Elon Musk noted recently, a “tight fit.” However, Musk’s goal of creating a space-based internet network will require many more of the orbiting communication devices.

Musk noted that providing “minor” internet coverage would require six more launches of 60 satellites each, while offering “moderate” coverage would require another 12 such launches.

SpaceX has previously estimated that its proposed Starlink array could involve as many as 12,000 satellites in varying orbits to provide global internet coverage, with the project taking at least a decade to implement.

On Twitter, Musk seemed to indicate his hopes weren’t very high for the first batch of satellites, writing, “Much will likely go wrong on 1st mission.”

In a statement, the company noted that the mission “will push the operational capabilities of the satellites to the limit.”

“SpaceX expects to encounter issues along the way, but our learnings here are key to developing an affordable and reliable broadband service in the future,” according to the company.

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